A TASTE OF HUNGER (2022) 

There’s a slew of good films peppered throughout Christoffer Boe’s A Taste of Hunger. Sadly though, each respective narrative doesn’t culminate in a story that’s cohesive enough to maintain interest.

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The professional strain of what it is for a chef to achieve a Michelin star for their restaurant and the personal strain that comes from the neglect of their partner is the main plot point Boe’s film should have adhered to, and, indeed, when Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s Carsten is pushed to the brink in his career and his wife, Maggi (Katrine Greis-Rosenthal), suffers because of it, A Taste of Hunger shows promise of an inviting film.

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Neither Carsten or Maggi are presented as the most likeable of people, but that also assists the film with a sense of realism, as their characters flaws help us identify with them – even if we don’t truly want to; Maggi, of the two, is the least likeable though as her character self-sabotages by indulging in an affair that she shows little remorse for.

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Had A Taste of Hunger maintained focus on Carsten and Maggi’s struggles, the film could have earned more (Michelin) stars than it ultimately deserves.  Sadly, a cyclical mentality of Maggi weighing up her options between Carsten and her lover and an added sub-plot surrounding the temporary disappearance of their son distracts Boe’s script (co-written with Tobias Lindholm) from its endgame of providing audience care for the Michelin mission; when the time comes for Carsten’s restaurant to be graded we have lost severe interest.

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Whichever way you opt to view A Taste of Hunger, its three-course-dinner temperament means there’s at least one underwhelming dish among the plates you’d recommend. Coster-Waldau and Greis-Rosenthal provide solid turns – despite their character’s venomous nature – but their commitment isn’t always enough for us to give the broken structure surrounding them.